Monday, August 31, 2015

The Submarine Show

The Submarine Show
created and performed by Jaron Hollander and Slater Penney
presented as part of the New York International Fringe Festival

As soon as Jaron Hollander and Slater Penney walk on
stage in The Submarine Show, looking
goofy in their striped shirts, suspenders and glasses, we can see that the show
is going to be fun. It’s an elaborate mime with tumbling and vocalizing. The
two nimble performers fill up the stage for 75 minutes as if they were a whole
company of actors.

We follow their story as they crash in their
submarine, surface to the jungle, machete their way through the brush, hunt, fly
and have a series other adventures. One of them even has an out-of-body
experience.

The audience isn’t left out. The performers coax us
to put on our imaginary regulators so we can breathe underwater. When they turn
into birds, they sidle through the aisles picking up our accessories with their
beaks.

They’re remarkably expressive; their faces register
relief, satisfaction, alarm, disgust, impatience… And they vocalize in a
hundred different ways, bleeping, screeching, howling, squeaking… There are points
when we nearly hear language beneath the garbled sounds.

There are many moments when the story is obscure;
we’re not sure just what is going on. But we can always enjoy the performance
in the abstract. These are very talented performers and The Submarine Show is
well done.

The
Submarine Show is presented as part of the 19th
annual New York International Fringe Festival, presenting 185 shows this year.